JAPAN’S TROUBLES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 21 February 1931, Page 9

JAPAN’S TROUBLES

INCREASING UNEMPLOYMENT

Business depression and social unrest are common to all llie leading countries of the world at tlio present time. Japan lias her full share of both (writes tin* Tokio correspondent of the Melbourne “.Argus"). Labour disputes have been increasing, both in number and in virulence. Students at schools and colleges have been exhibiting a growing readiness to resort to strikes and unruly behaviour. Unemployment has, for the first lime in Japanese history, assumed Ihe dimensions of a national problem Suicides, due to hard times, are becoming increasingly common. Hadical theories are gaining in popularity, and, as in (Jermnny, arc leading to the formation of extremist parties both on the right and on the left. Indications of the growing depression in business and industry arc evident in the fall that has taken place during the last 12 months in the volume of foreign trade, in the reduction of the national revenue, in the reductions that employers have been compelled to make both in wages and in ,11)0 staffs employed, by them, in.the reI strictions imposed upon industrial output, and in the increasing amount of shipping that- is being laid up. . In the rural districts the suffering is said to be even greater than in the towns and cities, and in some rural communities the coffers are so depleted that the school teachers have received no pay for weeks, and oven months, and are being forced to live on charity. Fundamentally, however, Japan is probably in no worse case economically than most countries at the present time, and she is cerhynly far sounder than most of them. She is going through bad times, admittedly; but what country is not? She is confronted by serious problems, but .they are problems that are little or no more serious than others that she lias faced and successfully overcome in the past, ller people are virile and hard-working, and her rulers are men of courage and initiative, gifted with organising powers and administrative ability. Generally speaking, the depressed state of business and industry may be attributed to two main causes. One is domestic in origin; the other has its genesis in world conditions. The first arises from the policy of economy and retrenchment, initiated by the Government as soon as it came into power in the summer of 1929. The second lies in the decreased purchasing power 0/ Japan’s principal customers. While, however, the Government may he criticised for having itself to he carried away by its zeal for economy and retrenchment, there is. r*o doubt that the good done far outweighs the evils arising from the mistakes committed. It is a misfortune, therefore, to Japan that unemployment and depression in business and industry have been greatly aggravated by circumstances outside her control. Business dcmession in the. United States, her most important customer, and in other leading countries has had its inevitable effect. on Japan, as also have the continuance of civil strife in China.. and the unset ted conditions in India. The resultant increase of unemployment and business depression have not been without theii effect upon the. social unrest. Unemployment is still on a small scale compared with what it is in Britain, Got ■ many, or the United States. Official figures nut the number of f unemployed at 400.C00, and even unofficial estimates arc no more than (500,000 and 700,000. But the very fact that unemployment has, of late,' become a question of national concern, assumes significance when it is remembered that until a few years ago if was virtually unknown in Japan. When business was bad, most of those thrown out of urban employment returned temporarily to the land to await the return of better times; but the stage has now been reached at which the land can receive them no more, as it can barely support even those who strive to eke out a living from its permanently. As year go on, therefore, the problem of unemployment seems to be likely to increase, rather than decrease in seriousness, and unemployment merely adds to the discontent and unrest, among the masses. How far it will go none can tell, but in considering the future it is impossible to overlook the significant facts revealed by the census taken in October. The figures show an increase of population in Japan proper—that- is to say, of Japan itself, exclusive of oversea possessions—of 4,711,000 since 1925, and of 8,484,000 in the last 10 years—in other words, ail average yearly increase of 848,000 since 1920, and of as milch as 942,000 since 1925. How to employ this growing annual increase of population presents a problem that calls lor high powers of statesmanship and administrative ability, for in it are involved questions both - of domestic and international concern.